Monday, December 23, 2013

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?" he
whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be
sure of you.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Childhood friendships are often like the one Piglet and Pooh
shared. Every day is an adventure and everything is a mystery. I distinctly
remember the day when I first befriended my best friend Maya. We were in K.G.
together. All students were given art homework to make flowers. While everyone
had made them red I made mine green in color. While some of the other children
laughed at my painting she was the only one who said it was nice. She even drew
a star on my sheet. Since that day we have been best of friends for the past 20
years.

A sketch of us when we were in KG

Dove has launched this contest called Guessing Game with my friend!It requires us to tell about the various games we played with our
friends. I am overwhelmed with nostalgia when I think about the various games
Maya and I played together in our childhood. One of them is building tents.

Building tents was
one of our favorite games till we were in primary school. She lived near my
house and used to come over in the evenings so we could play (read mischief)
together. Usually we would play board games or hide and seek but when it was Saturday
we would make tents. Building tents was one of our favorite games till we were
in primary school. She lived near my house and used to come over in the
evenings so we could play (read mischief) together. Usually we would play board
games or hide and seek but when it was Saturday we used to build only tents.
Maya would come over in the morning and the whole day was spent arranging
tables or chairs and then putting a big sheet of cloth over them. Every time
the material used to be different. Sometimes we would over the dining table
with bed sheets and hide under it pretending like it was a tent.

There were no playgrounds near our houses so these tents
were like our very own special playgrounds. We would bring all our toys in. We
would tie my mother’s dupattas around like a sari and play ghar-ghar.We read fairy tales using a torch.

I feel really grateful to have a friend like her in my life.
These were some our golden moments. I will cherish these memories forever…….

Saturday, November 30, 2013

India and Pakistan- two nations who have more in common than any other two countries on this earth but still are each others arch nemesis. Both share a common history, similar culture and were not so long ago one country. So why are they fighting for what seems like eternity??Stephen Cohen in his book "Shooting for a Century" has attempted to analyze this issue to find out its deepest roots and suggested ways in which these may be resolved. Cohen starts by detailing the history of India and Pakistan. When British government was ready to hand over power to the Indian people, Jinha and his associates asked for a separate country for Muslims and hence Pakistan came into existence. This partition was marked in blood. Blood of thousands of people-Hindus and Muslims-who lived in the partition area. Many were killed, many were lost. Many were helped by the others too but that fact is often ignored due to political pressures. On one hand, political parties spread the views of nationalism but on the other hand they had an undercurrent of mutual hatred between the two countries.

Cohen
cites three major reasons for the animosity between India and Pakistan:

water,

Kashmir

Siachin,

with no real tangible progress being made
on either of the three issues. The only resolution achieved was on Rann
of Kutch. So what prevents India and Pakistan from peace? Cohen presents six reasons:-

Insecure and distrustful relationship.

Both sides threatened for their identities.

Time, both are sure that in time other will collapse.

Both act as victims.

Both feel morally superior to the other.

Inability to rely on outsiders to solve the impasse.

Throughout the book Cohen analyses the various issues from both perspectives. He also talks how outside powers such as US can help and mediate in this issue. Personally I think this issue will never be resolved. This book is quite informative and unbiased.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Vampires, Fairy tales, Romantic-Comedies, Chic-lit romances, teen romantic
novels they all have one thing in common, that is, the 'Promise of Forever',
the 'Happily Ever After'. Teens or even adults these days are obsessed with the
larger than life romances. And billion dollar franchises feed on this
obsession. Children grow up reading fairy tales which often convey the message that at the end true love will last forever and the lovers will stay together forever. I'm not against happy endings or fairy tales. I'm not anti-romanticism either.

But ask yourself that do these conditions or this tag of forever necessary!!!
Do we need to put a timeline?

There are all sorts of relationships in this world which have their own dynamics. One can't really compare them. Love is one thing that isn't quantifiable. Also relationships have phases. So is it possible that every relationship will last forever? The answer is no. Not every relationship can last forever. On the contrary, many relationships, though of a short time-span, have depth far greater than the ones which have had a long run. Sometimes the passion fades in the long term relationships but it might replace stability, a quality which is no less important.

I like to think of this world as a pond. And of us humans as stones which are thrown in it. Our lives are the ripples which are created when the stone hits the surface of the water. These ripples interfere with other ripples in a similar manner like our lives interfere with the lives of the people around us. So in the same paradigm, love can be thought of as the force which propels those ripples. Initially when the stone has just entered the pond, the ripples are more intense and so is our need of love in the form of passion. But as those ripples fade and stability sets in our needs also change. We value the quiet.

So what do we ultimately seek? Longevity or Depth?

There is no correct answer to the above question just like there is no bad art. It's just about what suits you. However, I don't think that putting the condition of forever before every relationship is right. Sometimes love lasts a lifetime but lovers don't. So be charmed by the "forever and always" but don't expect every relationship to fit in that paradigm.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Monsoon and the chilly winds these days are keeping me from studying, I just can't concentrate. So I'm spending more time doing sketching and stuff....and I am trying my hand at drawing with Charcoal and Chalk for the first time in my life. And here is a look at some of my sketches.

Friday, August 9, 2013

This
must have happened to you. A significant smell that you come across reminds you
of a memory from the past. A smell that triggers emotions, feelings of joy,
love, hate, anger, all comes bubbling up in you. Those childhood memories that
you forgot come right back and transport you to that time and space as if you
were floating.

Our
brain is an amazing thing. It analyzes everything in the form of electrical
signals and forms memories. So when we see an object, our retinal
nerves send a signal to our brain which it then interprets and we understand
what we are seeing. Our nose follows the same mechanism. The olfactory sensors in our nose when stimulated by the
molecules in the air send electrical signals to our brain and our brain then
interprets these signals for us. In a similar fashion, olfactory memories are
also formed which get triggered when we smell something familiar. This is also
termed as "olfactory evoked recall".

As Indians our lives are filled with the spectrum of aromas, from the naughty dried red
chili to the soft cardamom, the mouth-watering fragrance of mangoes to the
tangy scent of pickles. Every season brings its own unique set of aromas. Winters
and the ginger teas, summer and the mangoes, Monsoon and the saundhikhusbu of the first rain, all have their specific and special
fragrances.

Come to think
of it, I have so many memories associated with specific smells around the
house. The smell of green mangoes reminds me of summers as my mother used to
dry them for making pickles. The aroma of hot tea reminds me of my uncle
sitting in the balcony reading the morning newspaper. The fragrance of basmati
rice takes me back to the time when I used to come back home from school and
know from the corner of the street that my mother would have made Rajma
and Rice for me just from the smell. Old paper smell reminds me of my
grandmother’s books. Diesel's smell reminds me of my dad’s car and the journeys
we took together as a family. When I think of my birthdays the only smell that
comes to my mind is of chocolate. My family used to get a lot of chocolate for
me-Chocolate cake, candies, chocolate dips, lollipops-you name and I had it. In
winters, my dad would bring hot Gulab
Jamuns for us which smelled like heaven. The aromas of onion and potato pakoras during monsoon still make my
mouth water.

Thus, my mind is filled with such sweet smelling memories which I deeply cherish. And I find it amazing that how are senses have the power to transport us to a different time, if not physically then mentally. So keep smelling and keep making memories.

Friday, July 26, 2013

For the last few months I was suffering from what I call Sketcher's block. I just couldn't draw. It felt like the passion for drawing died inside me. So last weekend I decided to reignite it. I saw this picture of Wolverine in the newspaper and I tried to sketch it. Didn't do an amazing job but hey I am still recovering!!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Exams-The
nightmare of every student and if you are an Indian student then it just gets
even worse. Every year lakhs of students sit for various exams like 10th
board, 12th board, national entrances to name a few. And I, being an
engineering student, have experienced most of them. Also be warned as the experience is
nothing less than torture. But now when I look back at those times I
realize that the exams themselves were not so tough, the problem was the
information imbalance. I didn't know what to study and ended up studying everything and wasting a lot many study hours.

NCERT is the
body responsible for print textbooks for CBSE. Since CBSE conducts the board
examination along with various national entrance examinations and NCERT
publishes books for CBSE one would imagine that these two bodies must be
working in complete coordination but that is as far from being a reality.I
specifically remember that the last exercise of every chapter of my math book was
marked with an asterisk which when one looked at the bottom of the page read -“these
exercises are not from examination point of view”, and the funny part is many
of those questions could be found in past year question papers often marked as
important in various help books. So in the end one ends up studying everything
as one can never be sure of exactly what is in course. As a result of which
many or I should say most of whom who can afford to, opt for coaching classes
or private tuitions. I remember that my entire s class took tuitions for
majority of the subjects (I didn’t because I’m one of the rare ones who score
lesser marks if put in tuitions).

Some of the
recent market research estimates the worth of the coaching classes and entrance
exam preparation sector at US $-billion dollar industry with CAGR of 13.23% (US$~ billion) by 2012(according to a
report by Ken Research Private Limited).
While the existence of such institutes and services are a matter of hot debate
these days but quite a few people are concerning themselves in understanding
the main reason behind their existence.

Franklin Templeton Investment partnered the TEDx Gateway Mumbai in December 2012. In this, various
people spoke about a variety of topics. Amongst them Angad Nadkarni spoke about
the Indian education system and how he has hacked the same. He spoke about an
app he has created called EXAMIFY which is intended to help students study effectively
by studying past trends of the exams and indentifying the importance of each
chapter along with the type of questions which can be expected from the
chapter.

In my
opinion, if this app can do what it promises then it will majorly change the
dynamics of the way students prepare for examinations. Also Examify claims that
with analyzing the past trends they will be able to predict future question
papers.If they can succeed even partially the net result would be of great help to students. Also, this will help students across the economic strata as internet accessibility is increasing manifold with every passing month. This will not only help economically weaker sections but also those who find it hard to study for long hours with a book.

Another feature I found pretty interesting about this service was that it
allows students to attempt questions online and compare their performance on a
national level. This will not only help in revising but also in understanding
the type of questions to be expected from the subject. Furthermore, Examify
allows the student to rate the questions as they attempt them. So if majority
of students find it difficult then one can skip it without wasting time,
something Angad himself talks about in the above listed video. This is one
feature I wish I had access to back when I was giving my boards because I
wasted lot many hours solving questions which were way above the prescribed
difficulty level.

I got 92% in my 10th board and 90% in my 12th board
exams, But I think if I had examify at that time then I would have scored more.
Nonetheless, at least my brother will benefit from this (he needs this ). I wish Angad and his
team all the best in correcting this information imbalance and making student's lives easier.